Captain America #2: Review

Aug 2011

Ed Brubaker, Steve McNiven

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Story Name:

American Dreamers, Part 2

Review & Comments

Rating:

Captain America #2 Review by Peter Silvestro (August 19, 2011)

Review: Where the story arc is going becomes clear in this issue: the baddies have a way to manipulate people’s dreams—revealing this to be “inspired by” last years’ hit movie INCEPTION. Well, it isn’t the first time Marvel has been influenced by a recent pop culture event; the test is, what do they do with it? We’ll have to see, since as usual it’s moving along at a snail’s pace. The oddest factor is the presence of Ameridroid; this character hasn’t appeared since his creation in 1981—and now he’s suddenly in this story and CAPTAIN AMERICA CORPS? Two writers bringing back the same obscure character simultaneously? What, is Marvel planning to market an action figure or something? That aside, Brubaker and McNiven do an excellent job of showing that Cap is a super soldier, with some breathtaking action in the assault on the Hydra base. This is what we read Captain America for and they deliver.

Comments: Confirmed: Jimmy Jupiter is the same character from MARVEL MYSTERY COMICS issues #28 to 42 (a Timely comic from the 1940s), an odd choice for a modern Marvel mag.

Captain America #2 Review by Rob Johnson (September 7, 2011)

Jimmy Jupiter was a Timely character with his own strip in Marvel Mystery Comics #28-48 and Human Torch #10. The only issue reprinted so far in Marvel Masterworks is HT#10. This issue describes Jimmy as having access to an other-dimensional space he called the Land of Nowhere. It is related to dreams, and he can use it go to the physical location of a dreamer. In the flashback he is going to use this ability to send agents to Zemo's Hydra base. Info on the Internet suggests that Jimmy could access many alternate spaces, only one of which was the Land of Nowhere. Indeed the only reprinted story shows him finding fairies in a wood, who seem to be in normal space. The idea of the Land connecting to dreams, and Jimmy being able to materialise next to a dreamer may be an invention of Ed Brubaker. It seems true that in some stories he does bring things back from his other-dimensional travels. Whether the flashback of Jimmy arriving home with a fairy girl is taken from any actual issue I don't know. But I would guess that she is the mystery Queen. On an unrelated note, I don't know what the opening 2-page scene of Captain America trudging through an endless icy wasteland is all about. I would guess neither does Peter, which may be why he didn't mention it.

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Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Captain America #2 Synopsis by Peter Silvestro

Nick Fury and Captain America tell Sharon Carter about the disastrous wartime mission that led to their current predicament: a little boy, Jimmy Jupiter (real name: Jankovicz) had the ability to enter a dimension between layers of reality. He made himself king of this "Land of Nowhere" which he could shape according to his whims and even pass through into other people’s dreams; this latter part is what brought him to the attention of the military. He was recruited for a mission wherein he would open a portal through the Land of Nowhere and into the secret Hydra base, via enemy agents’ dreams, for a team led by Codename: Bravo to infiltrate the installation. And that was where it all went wrong: a double agent attempted to kill Jimmy; the blow to the head put the boy in a decades-long coma and closed the portal, trapping Bravo and his team in the other dimension. And now Bravo is back and no one knows how. Fury has a lead that Bravo is based in an old A.I.M. lab in New Jersey; the team heads out there by jet only to be fired upon Cap leaps from the disabled plane (without a ‘chute!) and fights his way through the Hydra defenses and into the building. Inside a mysterious "Queen" escapes through a portal as Hydra agents try to hold off Cap and company for a few minutes. After the enemy is subdued, Cap and Fury realize that they were using some kind of teleport technology, which must have come from the dream-world. Another discovery: their foes were regular Hydra agents, not the ones working with Bravo. The question is, with all their new technology, why does Bravo still need Jimmy? Later in her dreams, Sharon finds herself in a wartorn city, being romanced by the dashing Bravo, who was once her Aunt Peggy’s lover. When she rebuffs him, the dream lover vanishes, with an ominous "See ya soon." She awakens and tries to explain to Cap what just happened when suddenly a giant red-gloved hand crashes through the window and seizes Steve: the Ameridroid is back….

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